May Day Flags

Click pics to enlarge

Writings about the Mayday Event from Around the world +

Flavia Fernandes Video!

a. Adam Nankervis

Dear All,
Greetings from the North.
Last night on Tower Bridge London there was a coming
together of a dialogue of thought,and action-of a
unity,that has included artists from Buenos Aeres to
Sydney,Liverpool to Rome,and what strikes me at the
heart of this event,Flagging Down May Day,the
inaugural event of the London Biennale 2006,was the
infectious and poignant sharing of
ideas,aesthetics,ideologies,which rose,amongst the
beauty of the flags,the banners,the maypole
ribbons.But above all else,speaking personally,was
your spirit and your sharing in a unity,to which you
all brought to this event,and although this is just
one of many personal thanks,it is a thanks of the
deepest gratitude.It was very moving,and the more I
see arriving from different locales,the more I want to
share that thanks.
Best wishes to you all,and a special thanks to
Dave,Adam

www.londonbiennale.org

b. David Medalla

Dear Artists-Friends,

Warm greetings!

It was a glorious May Day - the start of LONDON BIENNALE

2006 - with a truly inspiring invigorating intoxicating gathering of London

Biennale artists at the Eros statue on Piccadilly Circus (Eros : God

of Love) at 6 p.m., followed at 8 p.m. by "UNFURLING OF FLAGS"

on Tower Bridge.

A zillion thanks to all the LBAs who brought their wonderful

Eros-Arrows and Flags. In the very brief period of time I have free

use of the computer in the public library in my home here in Bracknell,

I am not able to mention everyone's name and describe your truly

imaginative Flags and Eros-Arrows. Therefore I would like to ask

all of you to E mail our indefatigable webmaster

arvinderbawa@yahoo.com and me with a short description of your

Eros-Arrows and Flags, together with photos if these are available,

and a brief account of your experiences at Piccadilly Circus and

Tower Bridge. I am in the process of starting a LONDON BIENNALE

ARCHIVE to record our various events./

A very special thanks to Adam Nankervis, our international

coordinator, who conceived of the "GLOBAL FLAGS UNFURLING"

Project in celebration of LONDON BIENNALE 2006. Yesterday

evening I spoke on the telephone to Adam at MUSEUM MAN in

Liverpool and he told me that many LBAs in different parts of the

earth have sent him and continue to send him the accounts and

photos of their "FLAGS UNFURLING" on May Day, including

Marisa Rueda in Buenos Aires, Raffaella Losapio in Rome, Marko

Stepanov and Valerie Vivancos in Paris, Reynolds in Brooklyn,

Jazamin in Liverpool, Jenny Brown in Sydney, and others. I will ask

Arvinder Bawa to put the photos in our website.

Simon Bendi came down with Adam from Liverpool on May

Day and his large "Not So Jolly Roger" Flag formed the impressive

"centrepiece" on Tower Bridge around and behind which there

fluttered in joyous celebration the many different flags of London

Biennale artists. I am still floating in a dream-like state of delicious

delirium. . .I will write a more detailed reprot about the May Day

events (which heralded an auspicious start to the fourth LONDON

BIENNALE) in a future E mail. . Ans so, for time being, I send you

all my artists-friends, my love and best wishes!

David M. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

c. Simon Bendi

Hi to everyone involved with the opening ceremony for the London

Biennale and Adam's Flagging project.

It was really humbling to be greeted so warmly, thank you all very

much. My we had some serious fun eh!

LBA's - rock n roll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big flags, little flags of many different 'colours', a fine ensemble indeed.

I hope to see you all again, respect.

Simon 'the hook' Bendi

d. Jenny Brown Sydney Australia

Tied is part two of a series and responds to the issue
of rising tides on low-lying Pacific Islands. A banner
was made for the work that became the Sydney
contribution to the opening event for the London
Biennale. Five grey pixilated pyramids overlaid with
wave patterns represent the five most vulnerable
Pacific Islands identified by Pernetta (1989):
Tokelau, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Line Islands and
Kiribati. The representation of the impact of rising
tides on Islanders and their homelands in this way
aims to mimic the news reporting process that involves
an absence of reference to people and an
oversimplification to “facts” within a scientific
premise, which is the way our pixelled windows will
present this story of rising tides over coming years.

On 1 May “Mayday” 2006 the “Deerubbun” was a floating
gallery when moored at the Sydney Fish Market and a
performance space when over two hundred frozen
saltwater forms were placed from it into the calm
waters of Farm Cove. People were invited to bring
their own frozen dedications to contribute to the
launch of the work. Pagan Mayday flower-giving rituals
and Pacific Islander traditions of lei placing
contributed to this idea. Varying in opacity, spiral
ring and circular shapes bobbed up and down in the
waves relating quite literally to our unstable frozen
water reserves. Their gentle melting and washing away
triggered ideas and emotions around transience,
temporality, erasure, absence, loss and memory.

In cultural terms the Pacific Islands contain a
disproportionate section of the world’s cultural and
linguistic diversity. Pernetta (1989) states that over
a third of the world’s languages are spoken in four
countries in Melanesia (Papua New Guinea, The
Solomons, Vanuatu and New Caledonia) and each island
group is home to distinctive human cultures, having
their own social and cultural mores, dance, dress,
traditional knowledge and technologies. He believes
that to preserve such ethnic diversity following
migration to a larger developed and more culturally
uniform society would be difficult if not impossible.

In some ways this was a funerary performance
deliberately created for no audience in attendance,
unlike the Islander people who continue to seek
response from the international community. The Pacific
Islands have not contributed to global warming yet
they will be the first victims from it and assistance
from the international community has been minimal.
This neglect partly stems from the view by Western
economists that these islands are non-viable, being
heavily dependent on remittances, aid and development
monies for present survival. Connell and Roy (1989)
suggest this dependence on outside sources of
financial assistance is a consequence of the
western-style economic structures that developed
pre-independence that have continued into the
post-independence era due to a lack of available
alternative modes of development, rather than through
active choice and decision on the part of the
Governments concerned.

Video installations on the boat included interviews
with Islander people from the Sydney Fishmarket and
representatives from the Pacific Island Mount Druitt
Action Network who described changes to their islands
over recent years as well as expressing fears about
displacement. Concerns were raised about Australia’s
record of not granting refugee status as well as the
treatment of people who have been granted refugee
status. 52,059 first ancestry Pacific Islander people
identified in the 2001 Australian Bureau of Statistics
census indicating an already strong familial link
between our islands that should send messages of even
greater responsibility to our neighbours.

An audio installation heard on all areas of the boat
included the slow gush of crashing ice sheets into
water and dripping sounds, as well as an occasional
boat engine that drones on to be quite loud at one
stage in the loop. This draws attention to the
Deerubbun’s engine that is lost from your mind when on
the boat for a short while, that can lead you to
ponder about the lack of internalized anchors to pull
you in check to your local actions of fossil fuel
consumption.

As a gesture of respect to those Islanders whose
islands are represented on the banner, at the end of
the performance the Deerubbun circled five islands on
Sydney Harbour.

Many thanks to our sponsor City of Sydney & in-kind
partners Sydney Fish Market, Tribal Warrior & Pacific
Islands Mt Druitt Action Network

Connell, J and Roy, P, P. (1989), ‘The greenhouse
effect, impact of sea level rise on low coral islands
in the South Pacific.’ In Pernetta, J.C. and Hughes,
P.J. (eds) Studies and Reviews of greenhouse related
climatic change impacts on the Pacific Islands.
Association of South Pacific Environmental
Institutions.

Pernetta, John, J.C. (1989), Cities on Oceanic
Islands: A Case Study of the Republic of Maldives. In
Frassetto, R (ed) Impact of Sea Level Rise on Cities
and Regions. Proceedings of the First International
Meeting ‘Cities on Water’ Venice, December 11-13 1989.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001) Census.

jennybrownjenny@yahoo.com

e. Elaina Arkeooll

Dear Arvinder

i didnt make May 1 events but did send my friend Bill to participate_ I

confess I was asleep as I'd stayed up late Sunday sorting books to take

for the voluntry ladies at CX Hospital and didnt sleep till very late- I

was woken up by my neighbours nephew who was locked out of the

flat downstairs int he hallway and was playing football against the wall

to wake them-I heard his terrible cough and got up and gave him Lee

Harvey Oswald's biography to read and a bottle of cough mixture-

going back to bed I tripped ovet the ladder dislocated my little finger

and bruised and cut my toes-there was a knock at the door and James

asked if he could sleep here-i'd asked him if he wanted blankets,

lightbub;lb or a drink and I couldnt say no-not with a terrible cough

like thaT-I went back to bed and his cough and my sore bits kept me

awake until about 9.00 so I stayed awake got up when he did and ran

out of steam at 4 pm and didnt wake up till gone 7pm, thats why I

wasnt there.

Please forgive me

elaine

f. David Medalla on Paris May day Flag.

Salut, chere Valerie!
          The beautiful photos you took of Marko

Stepanov unfurling the Flag of the Royal Institute

of World Anarchy over the Pont Neuf in Paris are now
in our website: www.londonbiennale.org and in the

website: www.museumman.org
   As you know, Adam Nankervis is the Director of

MUSEUM MAN in Liverpool & Berlin. It was his

brilliant participatory art project to invite

artists all over the world to unfurl the flags

of their own design on May Day tocelebrate the

start of LONDON BIENNALE 2006.
       The pure black of Marko Stepanov's flag in

stark contrast to the white of the buildings on

the Seine in the background somehow reminded me of
Malevich's Suprematist painting "Black Square on

White". Not so long ago, I learned that Malevich's

inspiration for that great painting was a memory
from his childhood: when he saw his parents making

sugar: the magical sight of the black molasses

turning into white sugar was a memory that became
imbedded in Malevich's mind.
        I like the contrast between the "softness"

of Marko's flag and the "hardness" of the white

stone buildings in the distance and of the Pont Neuf
itself. In one of your photos I noticed also another

 black flag draped over a barge on the river Seine.

The sight of that barge reminded me of the time
when American artist John Dugger and I lived in

a boat on the river Seine, by the Quai des Tuileries.
          Incidentally, John Dugger unfurled his

flag in San Francisco on May Day. He dedicated

the flag to the poet Gary Snyder. The text on the

flag "Wind/Mind" was inspired by a moving Zen

anecdote. You can see Dugger flag with an

accompanying text in the website: www.museumman.org

g. Raffaella Losapio - Rome

Dear Adam, friends, brothers,

happy for your invitation "fly a flag". Every year, 1° May in Rome

abig event (happening) will take place: an international music
concert in Piazza San Giovanni with millions people and flag.
Tomorrow, in Piazza San Giovanni and in others wonderful

location on a Tevere bridge, I will wave a red flag of London

Biennale 2006, against the violence to children, to women

and men, to animals, environment, against every abuse, against

any kind of conquest and land pollution, against exploitation

of new planets.
As soon as possible I will send you a documentary (record

and images) for the event and an exibition in August in London.
Greetings, kiss and much Love.
Raffaella

A memory and so many so many saluti,speros to still have involved for returning to Londra,Nino Ruju - Naples

Short Video of Flavia Fernandes Flag Raising in Brazil

1.5 Mb (2 Minutes)

From Joyce Ryckman in Montreal

Nancy's and my participation in the flagging May Day

event held in Montreal on the banks of the St. Lawrence

River was joyous and buoyed the spirits of everyone who

participated.  John K. Grande (writer, poet and art

critic) wrote a review of this event as well as the 
London Biennale for Vie des Arts (a prominent art

magazine here in Quebec).

I am attaching a copy of this review for your files.

Vie des Arts Review by John K. Grande